Combined guitar and mandolin.



0.NONFRI.

COMBINED GUITAR AND MANDOLIN.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 30. 1915. 1,188,983. Patented June 27,1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l- WITNESSES Odolo .Nonfri A TTORNEYS INVE/VTGR 0. NON

COMBIN D UITAR A AN APPLIC on FILED 0CT.30. 1

Patented June 27, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- TOR OddoNonf A ITO/M578 ODDO NONFRI, 01* NEW YORK,

COMBINED GUITAR AND MANDOLIN.

Sp a on of ett rs Patent Patented June 27, 1916.

Application filed October 30, 1915. Serial No. 58,814.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, ODDo Nonrnr, a sub ject of the King of Italy, and a resident of the city of New York, borough of Manhattan, in the county and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Combined Guitar and Mandolin, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

. This invention relatesto musical instruments and particularly to a combined guitar and mandolin, and has for an object the provision of an arrangement whereby the strings of each instrument may be independently played while using the same head and the same sounding board.

A still further object in view is to provide an arrangement of bridges, tail pieces and the like, whereby a set of mandolin strings and a set of guitar strings may be used upon the same device, one set being spaced above the other for part of their length in order that the respective strings may be played independently.

In the accompanying drawings: Figure 1. is a plan view of a combined guitar and mandolin disclosing an embodiment of the invention; Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the neck of the device, the same being enlarged in order to disclose more clearly certain parts of the invention; Fig. 3 is a longitudinal vertical section through the neck and part of the body of the instrument, the same being approximately on the same scale as that shown in Fig. 2; Fig. -l is a transverse section through Fig. 2 on line H; Fig. 5 is a transverse section through Fig. 2 on line 55.

Referring to the accompanying drawings by numerals, 1 indicates the body of the guitar, 2 the neck and 3 the head.

The body 1 of the guitar is formed so as to provide depressions 4t and 5 whereby a restricted section 6 is formed, thus producing what may be termed a guitar section 7 and a mandolin section 8, the mandolin sec tion 8 being provided with a sound hole 9. The guitar section 7 is provided with the usual bridge 10 having the bridge pins 11 arranged thereon in the. usual manner so as to receive the ends of the various guitar strings 12, which guitar strings extend over part of'the section 7, section 8, neck 2, and are properly secured in place in head 3 by adjusting members of any preferred type,

the nut or saddle 13 being used in the usual manner.

Arranged on the mandolin section 8 is a bridge 14 over which the mandolin strings 15 are passed, said mandolin strings also being supported by a saddle 16 near head 3 and ad acent the various apertures 17 through which the mandolin strings pass before belng secured to some of the pins '18 arranged on head 3. It is to be noted that there is a tuning pin 18 for each of the mandol1n strings and also a tuning pin for each of the guitar strings, whereby the various strlngs may be tuned in the usual manner, the particular construction of the pins 18 forming no part of the present invention.

It will be observed from Fig. 3 that the mandolin strings are :caused to extend through apertures 22 in thesound board'23 so as to be connected with a tail pieee 24t while the opposite ends are connected with some of the pins 18. The bridge I l, as shown in Fig. 3, is made suiiiciently high to cause the mandolin strings15 for part of their length to be farther from the finger board 19 between bridge 14 and the saddle 16, whereby the mandolin strings may be properly played without striking the guitar strings.

A finger board 19 is provided with a plurality of position stops 20 which may be arranged in the usual manner for guitars or mandolins, and additional stops 21 are provided also for guiding the fingers in playing the-mandolin. The bridge 14: is provided with notches through which the guitar strings extend and on which the mandolin strings rest, as clearly shown in Fig. 3.

In forming the finger board 19 a plurality of depressions 25 are provided therein, said depressions severing the various mandolin frets 26, as shown more particularly in Fig. 2, in order to allow the guitar strings to be forced downwardly at the same time that the mandolin strings and yet be held out of contact with the fret. For instance, in case the operators finger presses on a given mandolin string and also overlaps one or more of the guitar strings, all of the strings would be depressed but only the mandolin string would engage a fret so that the remaining strings would remain below the mandolm strings and thus provide only one string in proper position for playing. By this construction and arrangement it is permissible to arrange the mandolin strings 15 between the respective strings 12 of the guitar, whereby the finger board is of the usual width found in guitars and either the guitar or mandolin strings may be played by merely shifting the hand from one position to another.

The various frets, both for the guitar strings and the mandolin strings, are spaced to give the chromatic scale, though if de sired they could be arranged otherwise, namely, so that the guitar frets would give the chromatic scale while the mandolin frets would furnish only the diatonic scale.

What I claim is:

1. In a combined instrument of the char acter described, a body formed with a sound board, a neck extending from said body provided with a head, guitar strings, means for stretching the guitar strings, said means including the usual guitar bridge and head, a plurality of mandolin strings, means connected with the sound board for holding one end of said mandolin strings while the opposite end is held by said head, a bridge for the mandolin strings, said bridge supporting the mandolin strings above the guitar strings for part of their length, and a finger board provided with depressions interceptin the frets of the mandolin strings, said epressions being below the guitar strings.

2. In a combined instrument of the character described, a guitar including the usual guitar strings, a set of mandolin strings connected to the head of the guitar, a tail piece connected with the sound board of the guitar for holding the opposite end of the mandolin strings to thatheld by said head,

said mandolin strings being between the guitar strings, a bridge adjacent one end of the sound board of the guitar, said bridge having notches therein for accommodating the guitar strings, said bridge supporting the mandolin strings for part of their length above the guitar strings, and a plurality of mandolin frets arranged between the guitar frets on the finger board of the guitar.

3. In a combined instrument of the character described, a guitar including the usual strings, a finger board for the guitar provided with the usual frets, said finger board being formed with depressions between said frets, a set of mandolin strings extending from the head of the guitar to the center of the'sound board, a bridge for supporting said mandolin strings for part of their length above the guitar strings, and a plurality of mandolin frets arranged on said finger board, said mandolin frets being divided by the depressions on the finger board, whereby when the finger of the operator is placed on a particular part of the finger board in playing the mandolin strings the guitar strlngs are forced into said depressions While the mandolin strings are supported by said last mentioned frets and thereby are caused to play While the guitar strings are caused to remain silent.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ODDO NONFRI.

Witnesses:

DAVID E. ADLER, ANTOINETIE FUGALLI.

copies ot this patent may be obtained for flve cent! each, by addressing the "Commissioner of Patent; Washington, D. 0.

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